


Hypnic Jerk

by hexagonalslugs



Series: Circadian Rhythm [2]
Category: Assassin's Creed
Genre: Angels, Angst, Cuddling, F/M, Fluff, Genderswap, Hermaphrodites, Jealousy, M/M, Multi, Pregnancy, angel - Freeform, wing fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-08
Updated: 2013-08-08
Packaged: 2017-12-22 19:00:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 17,891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/916884
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hexagonalslugs/pseuds/hexagonalslugs
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Things are changing for the flock, and quickly too. What Desmond did in the ruins have consequences and now things are rapidly coming to their end point. The Ancients wake, but maybe the world isn't quite ready for that?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Me Worry

**Author's Note:**

> if the hermaphrodite tag worries you you clearly don't know my fics well enough to not know that all my monster people in the end are basically genderless. Also I _promise_ Desmond doesn't get knocked up.

Altair still couldn’t believe Desmond was still sleeping. Usually he woke when he and Adha did and went with them to have breakfast. Today though the kid was fucking dead to the world and Adha had been concerned for a moment before reassuring herself Desmond was indeed still breathing. He poked his head into their room and was just glad the Guild had given them a large room with a large bed and adequately sized bathroom since all three of them lived there. Not that Altair could convince Desmond to take his own room even though he’d tried.

It was dark in the room, the shades drawn closed and he saw Desmond’s form laid spread eagle on the top of the bed. His wings had mostly grown back in now but some of his primaries were still a bit short. Altair didn’t know why he’d suddenly taken up sleeping later, it wasn’t normal. Avians, like normal birds, were usually up with the sun and slept closer to sunset. Of course they could sleep in late or stay up later but it was just a biological rhythm they had that was different than humans. He frowned at Desmond’s sleeping form before slipping into the room and slinking to the bed, the door closing quietly behind him.

Altair slid into his bed, because honestly it was his bed, he just couldn’t get Adha or Desmond to get out of it, and pulled Desmond’s wing up to move next to him. “Get up lazy bones,” Altair said into Desmond’s ear before nuzzling his neck.

He grunted when Altair bothered him. The sounds that came out of him after that were decidedly avian, cooing. Desmond warbled out a moan when he felt Altair’s mouth and nose against his neck. There were small changes throughout the flock, but it didn’t mean that Desmond wanted to get up.

“No,” he whined, even as he rolled back, moving more onto his side.

Altaïr frowned at him, "Yes," he said having to move around to avoid getting inadvertently struck by Desmond's big wings. "It's late," he crawled over to  straddle the side of Desmond's thigh. He pressed his lips behind Desmond's ear before sucking on it, "Wake up. New day. Breakfast is almost over," and he ran his hand up Desmond's chest slowly, sucking and nipping at Desmond's neck and ear. Even if the idea of missing food didn't wake Desmond this probably would.

Desmond let his breath leave him, shuddering beneath Altair’s hand and mouth. “Don’t... care.” He was being roused, though it certainly wasn’t just waking up. Eating was the last thing on his mind, not that there were very many things on it right now.

He managed to get himself on his back, and grabbed somewhat blindly for Altair. Lazy kid was too lazy to even open his eyes.

Altaïr chuckled when Desmond groped for him blindly and he just leaned down and pressed kisses to Desmond's mouth to save him the trouble. Desmond, of course, had done exactly what Altaïr had wanted him to do. "Good to know that even if food won't get you up the promise of sex will, he said, grinning against Desmond's mouth.

Pulling kisses from Altair, Desmond licked at the curve of his wry smile, mostly just to drag over his scar. He kept making partial chirping noises, wings twitching. “Altyyy,” he grumbled, trying to sound annoyed even though his hands were all too gladly re-learning the scars on Altair’s skin.

Altaïr pressed a few more kisses to Desmond's mouth and face. "So," he said, his wings up, arranged in such a way that they covered the both of them, "you just going to get up by yourself or make me get you up first?" Because really, it was Desmond, Altair didn't doubt he'd at least try to get some actual sex out of this.

Since they'd left the compound a few weeks ago the flock had settled into their new home and the Guild was happy to have them. Unlike the Assassins they didn't want anything from the flock other than a blood sample from each of them, and some feathers. It was a much better deal than the Assassins honestly. And the Guild didn't throw a fit with how often they requested condoms, or lube, or anything really. They also didn't expect the avians to eat with humans since the humans had a very different diet than them. It was great honestly and it wouldn't be the first time Altair had been indisposed for part of the morning because of Desmond and Adha. But both for very different reasons.

“We... haven’t done anything like this in a while,” Desmond muttered. They’d cuddled - or really as much as Desmond could get away with - and shared kisses but that was generally it. He knew that Altair and Adha certainly fucked, but Desmond had been more despondent in comparison. It was just exponentially obvious today.

Desmond sighed, then chased Altair’s lips for a deeper, more tongue filled kiss. He’d also stopped talking about the ancients, he hadn’t brought up the woman, though he sang and hummed her song at times. It was mostly because no one really listened when he told them about what they were, about what he had remembered.

Altaïr pressed his forehead to Desmond's, "Do you want to?" he asked. Again, would not be the first time he was busy in the morning. And by busy he meant staying in bed with one or the other. He did like to, you know, do actual stuff in the morning, before lunch and he and Adha flew around the Guild building a few times, but... Sex was a perfectly good exercise too.

“Yes,” Desmond said, cooing softly. “I do.” He reached up, lightly scratching Altair’s scalp. “We’re... so hopeless,” he whispered. It wasn’t exactly sad, but his eyes had gotten a little distant. His left hand found the scar on Altair’s thigh, thumb rubbing over it.

He pushed himself up, holding on tightly to the things that made Altair the Altair that he was now and not centuries ago. That was the two bullet wounds, the cropped hair on his head that was so short it was soft, not too dissimilar from the kind of softness that flight feathers had. Desmond kissed him again, tongue prying at his mouth. “Maybe it’s just me... I always find you.”

Altaïr frowned a little, "What has gotten into you lately?" he asked. This wasn't the first time Desmond had said stuff like this, but he usually just let it go and didn't ask. He'd gone on about it more at first, along with the woman he'd seen, but he'd sort of stopped talking about both. Desmond still brought it up sometimes though, and he always looked... Not sad, rather like he was remembering something sad he'd seen.

"I'm not going to leave again," because he didn't have to. The Guild didn't ask for the sort of thing the Assassins did. "You don't have to find me," he took Desmond's hand. Honestly he was worried about the kid. He'd been so... Off, the past few weeks. "I'm right here," and he pressed Desmond's hand to his lips.

“I know but that’s not what I mean.” Desmond gave him a soft smile, the kind that was barely there. “This isn’t the first time we’ve lived,” he watched Altair, head tipping to the side. “And it won’t be the last, but each time I’ve found you.”

He pressed his forehead against Altair’s. “I can’t wait for them to return, things will go back to normal, and you’ll know what I mean.” It was funny. Every single time Altair always got that stupid scar on his lip. Desmond usually had a similar one, and sometimes it was Altair who gave it to him, his way of saying that this belonged to him. “Or... at least, I hope you will some day.” Desmond didn’t think he could even begin to explain it all.

Altaïr pursed his lips a little. He honestly had no idea what Desmond was talking about. As it was he could only sort of remember the last few months so he didn't know he was going to remember something he was pretty sure would never happen. "Whatever you say Desmond," Altair said and sat up, dropping his hands onto Desmond's hips. Honestly it was probably just better to agree. At the very least it was easier, though no less confusing.

Desmond was stuck on everything he remembered, and it wasn’t just an offhanded ‘whatever you say’ kind of thing. He shook his head a little uncertainly and backed up, feeling Altair’s fingers slip from his waist. “I... never mind, I can’t.” Not when it was like this. Aside from the fact that he loved Altair, and it was unreturned, the past lives that were in his head were his alone, and honestly, it exhausted him.

Even though he knew that he’d have to give up on ever really loving him once the Ancients woke, he could keep that to himself. Altair didn’t have to know. They were a breeding pair that always returned somehow, and there was plenty of affection but it was never like this. At least, it never hurt like this. Desmond leaned over to nuzzle Altair, not quite kissing him.

Painful love was human, which was one thing Desmond did not want to be. “Things change,” he mumbled, and turned to find something to pull over his briefs, not that there was really much for him to do. Even with the rate his feathers had fallen out and been replaced, they were not enough to support him in flight yet. He spent most of his time, when he wasn’t asleep or curled up against Altair’s side at night, with the artifacts and Malik, getting all of the crap he knew off of his chest. He thought that Malik recording all of it was a useless gesture, despite the fact that it was probably for Leo and the Guild to document. Other than that, it was really the only time that anyone paid any attention to him raving about fantastic, impossible things. Though it was seriously the only time Malik seemed even the slightest bit receptive. Usually he was even more skeptical than Altair.

Desmond tugged up the pair of shorts he’d grabbed. “I’m going to eat,” he announced.

Before Desmond could get too far away Altair grabbed his hand. He was worried about Desmond. He seemed so... unhappy all the time. Like everyone was too stupid to understand whatever basic thing he understood easily. “Hey,” he said and got out of the bed, still keeping hold of Desmond’s hand. “I don’t know what’s up,” he admitted and curved his wings around them, “But I’m here, okay?” and he pressed a brief kiss down onto Desmond’s mouth.

“I know.” His wings rose to push back against Altair’s, fitting comfortably against them. “And I’ve told you before,” Desmond tried to smile. “Malik has me talk to him when he’s not busy.” None of them were ever busy anymore. To him, it was as if they were all waiting, without knowing, for their keepers to return. Well, they were, but it was almost as if the rest of the flock actually knew. He sighed, shoulders sagging a bit. “You’re always here for me.” He couldn’t help wishing that Altair knew exactly how much ‘always’ really meant.

“Damn right I am, someone has to keep track of you so your head doesn’t fall off,” he grinned, teasing and pressed another kiss to Desmond’s lips before pulling his wings back and tucking them behind him. “You go eat. I’m going flying if you wanna come when you’re done?”

His smile was genuine by the time Altair kissed him again. Desmond couldn’t stop the quiet cooing before it happened. “I can watch. If they grow another six inches by the time I’m done eating, maybe I can fly.” The offending wing was held out, and there was a somewhat jagged line where the new primaries and secondaries were coming in. He wasn’t sure how he felt about all of them coming in with a gold tint, but there wasn’t anything he could do about it.

“Watching is better than nothing,” Altair said and when they left they went separate directions, Altair heading out, Desmond to find food.

Altair found Adha waiting outside for him already. She refused to wear most clothes, she wouldn’t even wear pants. At most she’d wear was underwear and everyone just lived with it. Not that there was much to see since Adha had nearly no breasts and was slightly feathered on her chest in the first place. She jumped on him as soon as she saw him, cooing in delight. He smiled when he caught her and kissed her. At least someone was always enthusiastic to see him.

_“Sky walk,_ ” she said and wriggled out of his arms. She flapped three times and was in the air, since she knew what he was here for, to fly with her.

“ _Softsong may watch_ ,” Altair said once he’d gained altitude next to her. “ _He misses sky_.”

She looked annoyed, _“Snake got what deserved for doing_ ,” she hissed and the feathers not on her wings stood up a little, though it was hard to tell with the wind buffering them down.

Desmond ate on his own, and was somewhat surprised that no one else was around. Then again, it was somewhere in the lull between lunch and dinner. He was definitely hungrier than he thought initially, and shoveled a second helping of room temperature food onto the plate. By the time dinner came around, he probably wouldn’t be hungry at all.

He wasn’t surprised when he found Connor outside. There were actual balconies with each room they were given at the Guild, none of those tiny, useless windows that barely gave enough ventilation to cool a room off, but actual windows and a rail-less platform. Desmond almost felt like he was with fledgeling feathers again, waving up at him.

Altair and Adha were just as easy to spot, and Desmond cried out to them, breaking into a run. It was unfair, really. His left wing caught the air just fine, but the right came up just barely too short. Even flapping, it wasn’t enough, and he slowed down, chest heaving.

Adha made a whining noise as they watched Desmond, “ _Sad see him like this_ ,” she said.

“ _Wings grow back_ ,” Altair reminded her.

“ _I know but still sad. He already sad_ ,” she frowned. Then she tipped her wings and dropped. Brighteyes watched her but didn’t follow. With a flourish she landed on the balcony with Softsong. She was slightly jealous of him. Brightwings had mostly golden wings, a little more than half her feather golden. But that was all she’d ever grow. Softsong’s new feathers were growing in  golden, meaning he could have more than her. She knew how golden her wings were didn’t matter to Brighteyes but she couldn’t help it.

Desmond had climbed up to it, wings flapping a bit when he had jumped, but other than that, most of it was him pulling himself up. It was honestly really weird to swear that he’d been able to jump much higher, and then remember that he wasn’t exactly like that anymore.

The feathers on his arm rose, and he leaned forward to press his nose against Adha’s cheek, wings flaring a little.

“ _Brightwings come see Softsong_ ,” she cooed to him, _“Make sure not sad_ ,” though she knew he was. Any time Softsong could be less sad though would be better. “ _Me worry,_ ” about him, because she did. He was important to Brighteyes though she didn’t know why a male was so important to her mate, so he was also important to her. At least he didn’t seem to hate her anymore.

Desmond tipped his head, sitting back. “ _No worry_.” He crouched rather than sat, though it was mostly because it was the only way his wings could be held comfortably and trilled back at her.

“ _Feel them_ ,” he said, “ _k_ _eeper_.” It was a loaded word, an old one. He had been counting the days, and sleeping most of them away, and it was just as much because he was depressed and tired as he wanted to waste time.

All of Adha’s feathers stood on end, “ _Keepers? Come?_ ” she asked and crouched down across from him. “ _Real? Not remains wishsong?_ ” because her thing that remained with her old flock had sometimes sung about their keepers and wanting  them to come back.

“ _Soon_.” Desmond could hear the artifacts if he stopped and listened hard enough, and they knew better than he when exactly ‘soon’ was. He closed his eyes and hummed. _“Woke them_ ,” he said, and it was something he’d said to Adha a few times before, telling her that they were sleeping beneath them the whole time.

Brightwings rocked back onto the heels of her feet with a frown, crouched over her knees, “ _Want now_ ,” she said, maybe a bit petulantly. Unlike the others, like Desmond, she knew that things were going to change, would, very soon. She was waiting, but impatient about it.

“ _I know_ ,” Desmond murmured, wings unfolding a little to shake the feathers out. He looked up at Altair, obviously wistful. Pushing up, he stretched out with a soft keen. Both he and Ed were regaining the few feathers they had lost since leaving the wild flock.

Rauf hadn’t quite lost his, and between him and Altair, the shorter, agile Rauf had retained the most of them. What was strange about it was that Connor and Yusuf were beginning to show signs of the same pattern of feather growth as well, and it went as far as Haytham.

Brightwings keened sadly a little. “ _Now_ ,” she whined and looked up at Desmond, “ _We meet them as one?_ ” she asked and cocked her head at Desmond. She didn’t have the memories Desmond did but she knew that once they came their flock might not always be together. Something would happen, though she wasn’t entirely sure what.

“ _Close_ ,” Desmond replied. _“Stay close_.” He had no idea what they would do, but he knew they were still rather close, and even though there used to be many of them, only some of them returned. He nudged her with one of his wings. “ _Change first.”_

“ _Change_?” she asked, _“How change? Why? Like now,”_ she didn’t like the sound of that. She liked what she was now. Why would there have to be change? She’d changed once for Brighteyes, left her home and come here to this flock and wore these... things on her body. She whined a little. She didn’t want more change, even if she did want keepers back.

Desmond, on the other hand, though apprehensive, was looking forward to it. In the short time since they’d come to the Guild, he’d come to terms with the fact that he, and avians in general, had changed to fit more closely to humans. They were softer, weaker and smaller than they had been, and sometimes never even took on their wings. Humans killed avians, and to survive, they changed.

He had been somewhat afraid of how he remembered himself, or even Altair. It was much more than how he’d ended up when he went feral. The word for it sounded more like angel, and monstrous angels they were. Desmond told her that they had to change back, and it wouldn’t happen easily.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> don't forget to tell us what you think!


	2. Please Tell Me I Heard That Wrong

It had been about a week, and Desmond’s appetite had been a weird fluctuation between hungrier than all hell to absolutely disgusted with food. Leo found out about it, and Malik convinced Desmond that it was alright to go see him about it, especially when abdominal pain became a regular occurrence.

Apparently some of the others in the flock had been getting aches that were similar to growing pains, and even Malik had admitted that he’d been growing feathers underneath the loose shirt and pants.

Desmond had described the differences between how they were now and the creatures they were before to Malik, but he hadn’t really thought about how those differences would be rectified. Where Leo was amazed that Desmond seemed to be creating an entirely new organ, Desmond was a little less than mortified, despite knowing that they were originally hermaphroditic. Hearing Leonardo say it was almost disturbing, especially when he started going on about actual bird anatomy. Having the word ‘cloaca’ in any way associated with him was not something he really wanted.

It wasn’t exactly like a cloaca, Leo had said, kind of fumbling over his words in that weird and honestly creepy excitement, in that it should actually house both the vaginal canal and the penis, which would probably be internal. Desmond ultimately tuned him out. He couldn’t decide whether to be weirded out by the way Leo talked about it, or the fact that it was an actual thing that was happening to him and it wasn’t just the source of an excusable memory that might not have even happened. Or the fundamental fact that he wasn’t actually all that uncomfortable with it.

Well, the Desmond that had grown up on the Farm was, but deeper than that, Desmond even felt a little better about it. It meant that he wasn’t a complete basket case, and that the ancients were even closer to returning, if the fact that he’d gotten a full set of claws back meant anything on top of that.

There was really nothing Leonardo could offer, and Malik wasn’t too pleased to hear that it would probably happen to the others, if it hadn’t already begun with Adha either.

And Edward, he still looked like the grandfather he was, but hardly acted like it anymore. No one brought up that he had been losing his memory, and no one brought up when he stopped forgetting things. Or that he was acting more like a giant kid than some guy going on seventy. Connor, at least, was pleased that he could spend a lot more time doing dumb things with Ed.

Desmond left the strange medical office, and his stomach sank when Malik told him he would have to tell Haytham and Ed about this, especially if it would affect the other flock members. That meant that Altair would find out, and out of the entire flock, he didn’t care if anyone else thought it was weird or disgusting, but the chance that Altair would made him upset to even think about the possibility.

“You know we can’t just ignore this.”

He fidgeted, picking at his feathers, mostly the grown primaries. “I know, but... to you... it’s not normal.” Desmond bit back a whine, killing it in his throat before it got out of his mouth.

When Haytham found Edward he was showing Connor how to cheat at cards. It was a lost cause. Connor was too honorable and numb fingered to cheat at cards. “Connor, I need to talk to Edward,” he said when they noticed him.

“Go on, we’ll try more later,” Edward said, shuffling the deck and handing it to Connor. He gave his father and grandfather a last look before leaving. “So what’s it?” Edward asked, enjoying the way his wings felt when he stretched them. Since they’d gone looking for Altair he’d started to be pained in them, early set arthritis a Guild doctor had told him the first few days they’d been here and he’d mentioned it. In the past two or so weeks though the pain had just... vanished. “Not something you wanna talk about in front of the boy if your face is any indication,” Edward said.

“It’s Ziio,” Haytham said.

Edward frowned, “What about her?”

“Something’s wrong with her.”

“Yeah?” Edward asked, Ziio wasn’t an avian but she’d come with them because she wouldn’t let her son or Haytham go without her. “Something we need to be worried about?”

“I don’t know. But she says she has near constant spinal and back pain.”

“You tell her to go to the doctor?”

Haytham’s wings rustled irritably, Edward swore they looked bigger than a week ago. “Of course I did! She’s too stubborn for her own good though.”

“Just like someone I know,” Edward chuckled.

Haytham rolled his eyes, “I’m still... concerned. Something might happen.”

“Just keep an eye on her,” Edward said, “and give her some pain meds if she won’t go to the doctor. I’m sure she’ll be fine.”

Desmond heard Haytham talking to Ed in the room, and hung by the door for a moment, watching Connor head off in the opposite direction. He didn't quite want to interrupt but hearing what was going on with Ziio piqued him, and not to mention Leo.

"What's wrong with Ziio?" He asked, letting himself in without actually knocking. The door was ajar anyway. Desmond looked from Haytham to his father, for the most part keeping Leo in the hall. Malik was still with him, also beside Leo, though he was too busy mentally cataloging so he could transcribe notes later.

It wasn't long before Desmond fidgeted. "Sorry for interrupting, I mean, I think there's something you need to know about uh... well about us," he said. "Maybe it would help?" He'd only really heard that Ziio might have needed medication for pain. Not exactly what it was for.

The two men stared Desmond down, not appreciateing being interrupted. Haytham gave Edward a look and neither of them say anything about Ziio, Desmond didn’t need to know. “And what would that be?” Edward asked.

He hesitated briefly. "We're all changing. Uh... physically." Desmond glanced at the floor, "feathers and all of that and I'm pretty sure Ziio's supposed to be like us. An avian."

There was a slight irritation to his gaze when Desmond met Ed's. "I haven't really talked about what I remembered to anyone but Malik and Altaïr... that isn't really why we're here though um, there are other changes that aren't visible on the outside." He'd gone from irritated with their withholding to nervous and somewhat upset.

"We're supposed to be hermaphrodites and uh, obviously we aren't and that is kind of going to change? For all of us, I mean not just me." He should've just let Leonardo break the news.

The two of them stared at Desmond now with the biggest looks of ‘the fuck?’ on their faces. “Excuse me?” Edward said.

Desmond almost flinched. "There aren't two sexes."

"It's quite amazing, really," Leonardo interrupted, though he didn't exactly push his way toward the room. "I don't know exactly how it is happening, but it does appear that Desmond is right. He is rather far along himself."

While Leo talked behind him, Desmond tried valiantly not to fidget, but did nod. Clearly, he wasn't keen on the dubious kind of almost-disgust.

Haytham and Edward looked at each other a moment, looking confused and bewildered. Edward then looked down at his crotch and Haytham pressed his hand over his face with a sigh. “I’m taking there isn’t anything we can do to stop this is there?” he asked.

Desmond was quiet for a while. “No, not really... no,” he said as he let his wings relax a little. “We don’t... look anything like we’re supposed to, but I don’t know how much will change.” He brightened, and turned back to Leonardo, feathers rustling.

“Do you have the drawings? From when you asked me to describe everything to you?”

There was a pause, and then, “No, only digital copies-” Desmond had already snatched the device from Leo, who was more concerned with him scratching the screen with his claws than anything else. Though the screen of the phone wasn’t really the ideal size, and made Leonardo’s scrawling, backwards handwriting totally illegible, the overall scan was clear. There were no defining facial features, but the structure of the being was clearly not all that humanoid. Perhaps only traces of it in the length of the limbs in respect to the length of the torso, but beyond that, not much.

“Leo said something about why we’re not like that anymore, it was something... about evolving to not get killed? I dunno, survival or something like that.” Desmond showed off the image, and Leonardo made an exasperated sound.

“It isn’t that avians are so rare, I don’t think,” Leonardo began, respectfully staying outside of the room where Desmond had let himself completely in and walked up to show them his phone. “But rather that surviving was better ensured the more human-like they appeared. Of course, that means that the more human-looking avians survive to breed, or are interbred with humans. However, Desmond’s knowledge of how avians are supposed to look leads me to believe that at least a number of you reincarnate.”

“That aside, though, it is simply amazing how quickly the evolutionary change happened, that for survival, even within one specimen, the body changed so quickly. Take Altair for example, and even you when you went to fetch him. Mere weeks, and the body had already adapted to survive better. Rapid evolution, absolutely incredible...” Leonardo trailed off, and then startled back into focus.

“.... Furthermore, I believe a similar type of rapid evolution is happening again, for survival as well as preparation for ah... Those Who Came Before. And likely why females are inherently rare, even if Desmond’s claims are true, and Ziio is supposed to be an avian.”

Edward was rubbing his head, he was too old for all this nonsense. Times like this made him wish Rashid wasn’t dead. He’d been better at dealing with all this bullshit. “So, you’re saying,” Haytham said, at least his son was smarter than him, bless the kid had gotten his mother’s smartness, “that somehow we’re experiencing rapid evolutionary change. Okay,” he said slowly and pressed his fingers together with slightly pursed lips. “For what? You say we evolved to survive in this world and I say we’ve done that pretty well. But why the change?”

“The Ancients are dead,” Edward said, when Desmond opened his mouth to complain Edward beat him to it, “I know you say you saw one, kid. But the fact remains that every time I went down to those ruins by myself or with Rashid they were dead. They were empty. And we tried to get them to work again. So what changed? Why are we changing after a few thousand years when this look has done us pretty well so far?”

“They were never dead, not really. And I wasn’t around to bring them back then, was I?” Desmond glared, gripping Leo’s phone a little tighter than need be. “What changed is that I brought them back, because... because humans had their chance. They ruined it, and they can’t clean up the mess. Because we aren’t their pawns to use.” Desmond had enough thought to return the phone.

He was a little unsure of really saying this with Leonardo right there. “They made us to keep humans in check,” Desmond said. “And they left us to it, but time led to humans forgetting, and that led to the temples crumbling, and we began to forget. Humans fear what isn’t like them, and really, you saw the drawing, we aren’t exactly fluffy adorable kid-friendly. Or we weren’t. Without the Ancients, we forgot... everything. The past, the language, the artifacts, ourselves.”

Desmond wasn’t really sure whose fault it really was anymore, and even the fact that they had forgotten such a fundamental truth probably wouldn’t go unpunished either.

Edward sighed and rubbed his head again, he felt tired. And damnit he should he was getting on and closer to seventy-five than he was to seventy now. Though honestly a lot of this sounded like what Rashid used to say, about the Ancients and everything. He rarely talked about it with the others, but when Edward was little he used to go on and on about it, saying all sorts of stuff Edward thought was great when he was little but as he got older started to think maybe Rashid was out of his damn mind. They had found him down there, alone, in the ruins. No one knew where he came from, how he got there.

“Okay,” Edward sighed.

“Edward you can’t be se-

“I said okay,” Edward gave his son a look. Haytham met his gaze but looked away after a few seconds. Haytham could stand where Edward was soon enough. But damnit he was going to have to wait until Edward died before trying for his position in truth. He looked at Desmond and unfurled his wings a bit, they reached out and he pushed the door closed with one, perks of having a huge wingspan. He shut Malik and Leo out, but really it was more Leo and he knew Malik wouldn’t let Leo listen in. If Edward wanted privacy he’d get it. “So we’re changing and according to you they’re coming back. So what do we do? Hmm?” Edward asked. “Because if what you’re saying is right then it might be that they’ll be pissed and really, we aren’t doing anything they didn’t make us for.”

Desmond looked away, shoulders and wings rising up. “I don’t... know. Those of us that look human will probably end up dying without having the time or uh... you know, stuff? To properly grow wings... but other than that... nothing. She didn’t have instructions or anything...” Desmond had to remember that Ed and Haytham didn’t know what he did, and that if he were in their position he’d probably think that whoever was telling him this was absolutely insane. The only real hard proof was... Desmond’s sex, and all that showed really was that something was turning him into a hermaphrodite, it didn’t quite support anything else, and was honestly still incredibly far-fetched.

"So until we get something more important than you telling us what to do everything will continue as normal," Edward told Desmond firmly and brushed his wing against Desmond. It wasn't a gentle touch though. More a 'remember your place' bump. "I'll... Tell the others we may be experiencing... Physical changes. Crap. They're all going to freak out aren't they?" he asked Haytham.

"Considering by human standards they're all incredibly violent, competitive, alpha males; no, I don't think they'll take it very well."

"Perfect," Edward sighed. He pointed at Desmond. "You don't say a thing about this to anyone unless you're rambling to Malik. Understand? Or I'll lock you in your own room."

“But Altair-” Desmond really needed to stop ceeding so quickly. He closed his mouth, trying not to growl. “It isn’t like you have to worry about it. You’re not breeders.” The word was ancient and hissed through his teeth. “It just means your dick isn’t gonna flap around everywhere when you’re not using it.”

He took the chance to beat his hasty retreat. Ed had better not lock him up, he was frankly tired of hearing the threat even if the last time he had heard it was some time ago when he wasn’t part of the flock. Desmond slipped past Malik, and it seemed like Leonardo had gone back to wherever it was that he stayed - his best guess was the same strange laboratory-slash-office.

In all honesty, he didn’t even know why he tried. Even if he didn’t try to explain, what was going to happen would happen. Desmond letting Edward or Haytham know wouldn’t change the course of action, and would have saved him the risk of making a complete fool of himself.

It upset him that he couldn’t get to the artifacts, just to a room that led to another, locked, room. And this one was keyed. Not as safe as the door back at the Farm, but it sure as hell kept Desmond out. He never got to show them to Adha either, and he’d promised her he would. Ultimately, he ended up pacing the hallway, wanting but unable to go to the artifacts, and wanting to go and just burrow into Altair’s shared bed and ignore everything until it sorted out. Until everything was the way it was supposed to be, or he’d even settle for it returning to the vaguely stressed normalcy that was the Farm.

He just really missed a warm presence, a gentle hand on his feathers and a soft voice.


	3. I Have a What?

It was morning and Altair felt exhausted. Adha had slept quietly last night, nuzzled into his chest and was still there, Desmond was tucked into his flank on the other side. But he still felt tired as hell like he'd just run a marathon.

Grumbling he sat up and that didn't sit well with his bed mates who complained. But Altair, despite just wanting to sleep in for once, had to piss, bad. He climbed over Desmond, mindful enough if his big ass wings and stumbled into the bathroom. Thankfully he didn't have to share with Ezio or anyone anymore. Well just Adha and Desmond of course but at least now he didn't get unexpected visitors like Ezio waltzing in while he was sitting on the toilet. He snorted and was honestly just happy he could remember that at all.

He pushed his underwear down a bit and reached down and...

Altaïr blinked to make sure he was awake and looked down.

There was nothing there.

He squeezed his eyes shut. Edward had told everyone they were likely to be going through some physical changes, but he assumed he didn't apply since he already had. But this... WHERE THE FUCK HAD HIS DICK GONE? He really hoped this was a dream and he woke up. He wanted to wake up... Right now.

The most pathetic sound left his mouth. It was a whine and he sounded about as upset at you could imagine that his dick was just... Not there.

How the hell was he supposed to pee?!

Desmond was awake enough to hear the muffled whining from the bathroom. He groggily disregarded it, but pushed himself up, nearly stumbling as he went to the door. "Alty?" He was confused at first, and kind of leaned against the door at first, forehead against the cool wood. "You o- oh..."

Altaïr looked over his shoulder when he heard Desmond. "I really have to pee," he said and he was more concerned about that at the moment than just that his dick was gone. It didn't exactly /feel/ gone. Like he could feel it still, cause he had to piss the same way he always did. His dick was just... Out of the picture temporarily and something told him not to worry about it too much.

"I meant the pitiful whimpering." He yawned, feathers rising. Desmond turned away from the door, and went back to the bed, finding Adha a warm replacement to snuggle against.

Since his body had decided that human penises were out of style, he'd been a little more touchy-feely. Mostly just curling against or leaning on Altair or Adha, which had turned out to be fine. He hadn't found sufficient alone time, but seriously. Desmond was really curious. He knew, in theory, how it worked but he was still /Desmond/, and fuck if he wasn't curious about the whole vagina aspect. Or maybe he was just ready for another fuck. It had been a while, and though the kissing and weird cuddling was great, it wasn't as good.

Altair was starting to wake up more now and with it was a slowly rising panic that there wasn’t anything down there. He controlled himself from having a full on freak out though. Girls didn’t have dicks and they peed just fine. He would be <i><b>fine</b></i>. Though he would do so he didn’t quite know yet. So... how did this work.

He pulled down his underwear a bit more to poke around down there, being careful of his claws because wow that would be a bad thing if he snagged them on something. He still really had to pee. “Oh,” he said in more than a little surprise when something sort of... poked out of his skin. There was sort of a flap over it. “Oh good,” he said to himself, since like he thought his dick wasn’t <i>gone</i> it was just... hiding. He sighed because now he’d figured out the mystery of how he could pee again. God bless.

Now much more awake he poked at around that area and thankfully wasn’t panicky anymore. Fuck, as weird shit had happened to him like he was seventeen and sprouted giant fucking wings. For all he knew this was just a thing dude avians did when they got older. He didn’t know. He’d never seen Haytham or Edward naked and he really didn’t want to. So he wasn’t too riled up about it. Once he was satisfied he knew how it worked again he washed his hands (and christ he was going to have to figure out how to wash that now...) and went back into the bedroom. He cocked his head at the two sleeping avians in his bed.

Adha hadn’t changed. She was like how he’d met her. But Desmond though... he hadn’t seen Desmond naked since before he’d left for South America. Maybe it wasn’t just a thing older avians had happen to them. He went to the bed and crawled in, laying on top of Desmond’s wing behind him. He nuzzled against Desmond’s neck, wrapped his arm around Desmond’s waist and then pressed his hand down into Desmond’s boxers.

Desmond groaned, trying to keep his wings from getting stuck under Altair. By the time he’d realized where Altair’s hand was going and grabbed his arm, it was a little too late. He pretty much stopped moving completely, chest still aside from the wildly nervous beat of his heart.

Altair had his hand down there and there wasn’t anything where it was supposed to be, and for the first time he’d actually listened and didn’t talk like Ed told him to- “Don’t freak out, seriously don’t,” Desmond mumbled, just about begging. And shit, his fingers were so close, his hips could twitch and they would rub right over the top of the slit. Well, it wasn’t like there was nothing there, but it was more like a mound, and that was where everything stayed mostly. He had no idea, he’d been kind of afraid to actually figure out how it worked other than to piss (and even so, he’d waited to crack that open until he honestly couldn’t leave it any longer, and his bladder hated him for it).

“Huh,” Altair said and patted Desmond down a little before removing his hand, “No wonder you didn’t want to do it,” and then he sat up and got off Desmond’s wing. He ran his hand first through Desmond’s hair, then through Adha’s who woke enough to trill a little sleepily. <i>”Going for food,<i>”he said. Adha chirped that she heard but didn’t wake up.

He didn’t really keep back the shaky, little keen. Or specifically, couldn’t. Desmond did stop the grumble when Altair took his hand back. “That’s-” Desmond pushed himself up, watching Altair.

“I mean, it’s not really- I just... Ed said not to say anything about it.” He picked at the feathers on his arms, knees drawn up. “I don’t know how it works,” he went on to admit, voice quiet. “Sexually, how it works sexually.”

Altair pulled on shorts, because with leg feathers he couldn’t wear pants anymore, which sucked a bit, and looked at Desmond. He glanced at Adha who was sleeping soundly again, “Well not like I’m going to force you to figure it out if you don’t want to. This why you’ve been so damn weird lately? Ed said we were gonna change some, and... well,” he shrugged, he really didn’t know what to say. He was sure he’d freak out about it later at some point, but not now.

“Kind of... It’s... also kind of a lie, I know how it’s supposed to work, I just don’t know if I’m okay with it?” Desmond furrowed his brow. The past him, or what he remembered of him, was honestly fine and dandy with it. Better, even. But the last twenty years of him were a little bit more prevalent. They were recent and who he was now was because of those years, not the distant memories of some bird he was in the past. All in all, it just hurt his head, and was why he talked to Malik about it.

Desmond scooted to the edge of the bed, “You said you were going to get food...? Can I come with?”

“Sure,” Altair said, doing his belt. “And well... I assume we’re stuck like this so not much we can do about it. Get dressed, I’m starving.”

They had cut off a lot of pant legs since they got there, and Desmond tugged on one of the many pairs of hastily made cut-offs. “It was fine, I just didn’t think you already... you know, changed uh... already.” He gestured uselessly at his general pelvic area.

“Are we going or are you just going toto stand there?” Desmond asked, watching Altair buckle the belt. He didn’t understand why he wore it.

“Yeah, c’mon,” Altair led Desmond outside, Adha still sleeping. “And it kinda happened overnight,” he said awkwardly. “I mean I went to bed pretty normal, and now woke up tired and hungry as hell.”

That was more or less how he’d been, “I think that’s just... how it is. We didn’t have all that junk.” Desmond followed him, mostly because he couldn’t walk beside Altair in the halls without either of them hitting the wall with a wing.

He definitely liked the separate mess halls though, and considerably less cooked food - meat especially. Desmond served himself and waited for Altair, who was getting much more than he was.

Altair had two plates, one full of meat, the other with grain. There were no fruits, no vegetables. His father had always told him to eat his veggies but avians processed food differently and burned through it faster. Fruits were good if you were really low on sugar, but it just made you wired through most of the day and could easily leave you with a sugar headache. The vegetables weren’t needed for them to get the proteins they needed. Sometimes it was nice to have them but their bodies had an even harder time breaking down vegetables than normal humans did. He sat down across from Desmond and before starting eating he looked right at the kid and said, “If you wanna figure out how it works you can ask.” Then he turned to his breakfast with gusto.

“I know how it works!” He muttered, “I told you already...” Desmond glared down at his plate, mixed rice with the mostly raw beef and went at it. He called it rice, but it was mostly quinoa, it didn’t really matter to him. It tasted good, and it was easy to eat.

Sitting back, he watched Altair eat for a bit before turning back to his food. “You’re the one who knows nothing about exactly what you have down there anymore.”

“Eh, I’ll figure it out. I’m sure Adha will be happy to help me on that,” because she would.

Desmond kicked him under the table. Lucky he didn’t have a dick and balls hanging out for him to slam his foot into anymore. “Thanks, asshole.” His feathers were fluffed out a bit like it had been an attack on him rather than just an offhanded comment.

He didn’t even for a moment expect Altair to understand why it upset him, nor did he really want to explain himself. They were just fucking anyway, to Altair, that was all it was.

“Well you aren’t exactly making yourself available for figuring it out,” Altair said and rubbed his leg because fuck Desmond had just kicked him seemingly as hard as he could from that position. “Fuck that hurt,” he gave Desmond a look. “No need to be so damn defensive. You know I give you both equal treatment,” which was true. He tried to at least. But if Desmond was going to be moody about not getting any it was his own damn fault since Altair was available. Desmond just... wasn’t.

He turned his glare on Altair. “Yeah, well I’m pretty damn available, I wasn’t supposed to oh, you know, tell anyone. I actually listened - not that you would’ve believed me if I said anything or would’ve taken it well.” Desmond nearly rolled his eyes. Nearly.

“‘Cause hey, all the feathers are fine and all, it’s nothing that crazy- you don’t realize you have a full on vagina down there, do you.” His head tipped to the side, brows set at an incredulous angle aside from the deadpan expression on his face. It wasn’t a question. “Adha has a dick too.”

All the food Altair had been eating spontaneously fell out of his mouth and he nearly dropped his spoon. “I have a <i>what</i> now?” he asked and looked down at his lap.

He did roll his eyes now. “You don’t have to worry about it. You’re more of... a stud, I guess.” Just like Ed and Haytham. “Still bet it feels pretty damn good anyway.” It was another case of ‘when Desmond starts talking, he doesn’t stop talking.’

Desmond fixed him with a stare and sighed. “See why I didn’t want you poking around in my pants? That. That’s why.” And it really fucking sucked.

Altair looked at Desmond and opened and closed his mouth a few times dumbly. Then he very pointedly pushed his mouth closed with his hand. “Okay,” he said slowly and reminded himself to not freak out. So far he thought he was doing a pretty good job of it honestly. He hadn’t screamed or flipped out or anything, but then he’d never been the type to do so unlike... “Oh shit,” he said but he was grinning. “This is happening to all of us at some point right? Fuck I cannot wait to see what Ezio does!” and all at once he wasn’t freaked out for real. The thought of Ezio losing his god damn mind over this was far too pleasing an image to worry about otherwise.

Then he composed himself again, “Okay, so maybe it’d be weird as fuck. But, in case you didn’t notice; we all grew gigantic wings from our backs. Honestly after growing two extra limbs I can’t find much to be weirded out for long now. Especially after what happened to me,” he said meaning when he’d gone feral and his entire chemical makeup had changed along with a good deal of his physiology. “And for the record; if Adha does have a dick, I haven’t seen it.”

“If not now, she’ll get one. We’re supposed to have both.” Desmond shrugged. Altair wasn’t flipping out about it so much, and he was fine. He even went back to finish eating. Desmond lifted his foot, gingerly pressing his toes against Altair’s. It was a kind of wordless apology for kicking him, though he was still a little miffed that it seemed like he hadn’t even considered Desmond.


	4. Doctor Feel Good

Altair had sent Adha to Leo, and had left to take her there a little while ago. Desmond was left to his own devices, and after showering, gave into the curiosity. He was glad to find out that it took a bit of effort to actually scratch himself, considering the rather wicked curve to the claws at his fingertips. Sure, he’d gotten aroused, but actually getting hard almost seemed like it was impossible.

He groaned, and flopped back down, rolling onto his side. Really, he was no less horny than he had been weeks ago, his attempts had just been... incredibly unsuccessful. Desmond had found out that trapping his hand between his thighs and more or less rubbing against his forearm did something. Whatever Desmond ended up doing ultimately left him unfulfilled and and far from satisfied.

Desmond grumbled and traced his thumb over the seam, almost but not quite cooing. He would kill for a Goddamn cock. Or at the least someone else’s fingers. Yeah, Altair’s would’ve been real fucking great.

Leo was, as always, happy to see any of the avians. He was troubled that Adha was so under the weather though since avians were usually so resilient to illnesses. "You don't have to stay Altair," Leo said as he took her temperature, just to start off. "I promise I'll be gentle."

Not the best thing to say. Altaïr's wings rustler and fanned out a bit. "If she's any less perfect than when I brought her here I will do something you won't like," he growled.

Leo swallowed, "Of course! No fear she'll be fine," he promised.

"Okay," he huffed, " _Brightwings Leo is going to look over you. Just do what he says and come find me when you're done,_ " he said and stroked her hair. He knew she understood a good bit of English now, but couldn't speak it. She nodded and he kissed her on the forehead before leaving realizing he'd probably just get anxious watching Leo.

He headed back to his room since he knew Desmond was probably there still after his shower. Maybe he could convince Desmond to be entertaining. He was so caught up in being worried about Adha he didn't really pay attention to his own room until he'd closed the door. "Oh..." he said, "Well, this isn't the first time I've caught you in a compromising position," and he literally just remembered that now.

He swore, and one of his wings came up. It didn’t exactly cover him, just flared in his surprise. “Alty, uh...” Desmond gave a weird half whimper that probably wasn’t as odd as it might have been a few months ago.

Desmond still wasn’t too sure about rolling onto his back, though, but his hand had stopped moving.

Altaïr's cocked his head to the side, "You look weird without a dick. Not bad, just strange," he said. He went and sat on the edge of the bed, sensing Desmond was was /super/ uncomfortable about this. Though if Altair remembered Desmond had always been at least slightly flustered when Altair 'caught' him pleasuring himself. "Can I watch? Or do you want me to leave?" he asked.

“Do you want... to touch?” He’d looked away when Altair said he looked strange. Desmond bit his lip, at least leaning somewhat on his back now, one wing still folded beneath him. “It’s a little better than trying to poke around yourself,” he muttered, unwilling or unable to look directly at him. “I mean, if it wasn’t like this, I’d really like a good fuck, some hot, slow foreplay and all that.

“So much shit’s been happening.” Desmond’s flecked eyes moved up to Altair’s, “I really missed you, you know...”

"Well that's your own fault," Altaïr said and leaned over to Desmond's mouth, "because I've been right here the whole time," and he kissed Desmond gently but fully and ran his hand slowly up the inside of Desmond's thigh.

Desmond’s grumbled ended up more like a groan against Altair’s lips. His legs spread at his touch, expectant. “‘M not sorry for waking them,” he muttered, stubborn. His teeth grazed Altair’s bottom lip and he pulled it into his mouth, having sat up a bit to free his wing and press closer to him.

"Just be more entertaining when it happens to Ezio," Altair said with a grin and his hand continued its journey up Desmond's body. He was going to worry about the new bits later. Desmond still seemed stressed out so he was just going to touch him and kiss him, which Desmond seemed to enjoy immensely. Altaïr kissed his mouth and his lips then his face. He smoothed his hand across Desmond's chest as he moved on to kiss his neck. It had been a long time since Altaïr had left a mouth shaped bruise on Desmond's body. He thought it was high time to make that happen again.

He more or less sank into the feeling of Altair’s hand and lips, tipping his head back with a long, low keen so he could seek out his throat. The feathers on his body rose, fluffing and shuddering along with him as a shiver raced along his spine. Desmond’s hands were against Altair, fingers digging into short hair, gently worrying small, soft feathers that blurred the line between hair at the back of his neck, and feathers at the nape of his neck that ran all the way down his back.

Altaïr moved himself and straddled Desmond's thigh, kissing him properly again. He ran one hand through his hair, the other gently fit itself against Desmond's neck. The feral, wild, side of Altair was saying this was his. He honestly was as possessive over Desmond as he was of Adha. In his head they were his and he didn't want others /touching/ them inappropriately. He stroked Desmond's throat with his thumb gently as he kissed him, his other hand practically petting Desmond, running through his hair again and again.

The cooing became a rough, quiet trill into Altair's mouth. Desmond squirmed, clearly enjoying the gentle hand on his neck, caressing his throat, over the new, tender bruise. His hips responded with a shallow jerk. God, he loved Altair touching him. "Alty," he murmured again, mostly just breathing against his lips rather than actually kissing him.

"That's it," Altair said softly and gave Desmond's throat a gentle squeeze before letting go and moving again. This time to sit between Desmond's legs and he grabbed both of Desmond's thighs and pulled them so they were on either side of him. He returned to kissing Desmond's mouth and neck, one of his hands finding Desmond's and threading his fingers through Desmond's, pressing it to the bed. His other ran up the outside of Desmond's thing as he rolled his hips forward.

Desmond keened, fingers tightening on Altair's hand. He'd felt his cock twitch, and by the time Altair touched him, it was hardening and pushing up. Stranger still was the fact that he felt wet, and honestly didn't mind his fingers, and certainly did not mind his hips. Desmond ground against him.

His body was definitely getting ahead of what he thought he was remotely ready for, but fuck, it felt like everything was throbbing.

Altaïr sat back, but still kept one of his hands twined with Desmond. "There we go," Altair said with a grin and looked down at Desmond. The head of Desmond's cock was starting to poke out of the sheath. Altaïr ran his thumb across it, but otherwise didn't touch him. "You looked kinda worried that wouldn't happen," he smirked. Really this was just like Desmond. Completely ahead of Altair who was just starting to get turned on.

The groan out of his mouth was more of a strangled warble. Desmond’s eyes were darkening with his arousal, and the feathers that could move were fluffed out across his chest and shoulders. “I couldn’t... get it up,” he mumbled, stiffening and then relaxing.

It was either really fucking weird, or really damn good, which of the two was totally unclear. Desmond was far from sure, but he knew that whatever it ended up being, he really did enjoy it, squeezing Altair’s hand. It kept him there. Grounded. Aware and totally sure where and when he was. His other hand came up and tugged Altair back into another kiss.

“I don’t care... what you do, just don’t stop.” Desmond was on the verge of breathlessness, mumbling against Altair’s lips, most of his kisses actually missing his mouth and landing more on his chin and the crease from the corner of his lips.

"Okay," Altair said, his hand still down by Desmond's hip. He ran his thumb across his cock sticking out like it was eager to investigate what felt so good. Altaïr had far better aim with his kisses than Desmond did and pressed them easily against Desmond's mouth and lips.

He stopped when things moved down there. He sat back and undid his pants but the whole... Thing was at a slightly weird angle. He pushed his shorts down further before just taking them off. His underwear still hung lowly on his hips though and he sent his hand down to investigate what the situation was.

Altaïr made a pleased sound and smiled, eyes closing. Okay it still felt the same, good to know.

Satisfied with what was going on there Altair wriggled out of his briefs since he knew they were both going to need more friction to do this. At least he was. He leaned down and kissed Desmond and rolled his hips against him, squeezing Desmond's hand tightly in the mattress.

Desmond felt himself slide out against Altair, and pushed his hips up. "Fuck... ffh..." That was fine, that was fine. He did mourn the loss of Altair's fingers, trying not to whine about it.

His fingers ended up tangled in his hair again. "What... uhm.. what do you do with Adha...?" Desmond asked, voice low. Even now and he still hadn't lost that human embarrassment, and likely wouldn't. "When you have sex, I mean...?"

"Uh... I don't think that really applies," Altair said, fuck why the hell was Desmond bringing up Adha? He was doing to /not/ think about her right now. Doing so sent a flash of worry through him he stubbornly stamped down. "I mean..." he gave Desmond a funny look, "Unless you have the same parts now?"

"That's what being a hermaphrodite means..." Desmond looked away, letting himself fall back more completely on the bed. "N-nevermind, forget I asked." He was horribly conscious of it all now. The addition to his anatomy and the fact that he had entertained the thought of Altair fucking that - he didn't even have a /word/ for it.

Normally Altair was low ranked when it came to having shame. As in; he didn't actually have any. But this was new, and weird and even he felt awkward about the whole thing. After all how else were you supposed to take finding out a guy was suddenly... Half a girl? Or at least had the parts and... it was just weird.

Really though he didn't want to treat Desmond like Adha. They weren't the same. But Altair was up to trying anything at least once. That was, afterall, how he decided he liked dudes after all, and girls after he'd found that out. He nuzzled Desmond's neck. "We can do whatever you're okay with," Altair told him, kissing his neck and running some of his fingers through his wing.

Desmond relaxed somewhat, lulled by the lips and breath against his skin. "Not... not now." Whatever that had prompted him to ask was gone now, he kind of just wanted to roll over and forget about it. That didn't mean that it wasn't responding to Altair like his dick was. The entire area was erogenous, it was kind of hard not to, especially when he hooked one of his legs over Altair's hip.

"Do you just wanna do it the way you're used to?" Altaïr asked, as in, before Desmond had grown a second sexual organ... And wow that was an entire train of thought Altair didn't want to go down. "Or just want me to make you feel good?" Because he was good at that at least.

"Just make it feel good," Desmond responded, pushing up against Altair. There was only so much time he could spend on his back, and his wings just needed to move. He settled against Altair's thighs, the limbs spreading out behind him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yeah  
> you don't get a payoff  
> porn is boring =u=/


	5. Fledgling

Altaïr was dosing, feeling good and relaxed. Desmond was curled up against his chest doing the same. Altaïr ran his hand through Desmond's hair now and then, his claws scraping gently across Desmond's scalp. He felt utterly happy and content. He made a soft, confused, warble when the door opened. He looked up a bit and saw it was Adha. " _Brightwings_?"

" _Brighteyes_ ," she cooed as she closed the door. She didn't look any better but she seemed happier. She flapped her wings to propel her into the bed. She left Desmond to be snuggled up against Altair's chest and nuzzled against the back of Altair's neck adoringly.

" _Good_?" Altair asked.

" _Wondrous_ ," Adha beamed and sat back on her calves. Altaïr twisted his head around a bit to look at her. She had her hands placed on get flat stomach. " _Fledgling_ ," but not the same term for fledgling like you'd use on Desmond or Connor.

Altaïr sat up abruptly, disrupting Desmond but hardly noticing. " _With fledgling?_ " he asked because fledgling was also baby, or child, and new thing and student. Adha just trilled a yes that wasn't a word but just emotion; happy. Altaïr felt his face go slack in surprise and shock. She'd been sick mainly in the mornings. Now it all made sense. He didn't know why he hadn't realized it.

Adha was pregnant.

Desmond ended up mostly on top of one of his wings, and had to actually get off of the bed with an ignored whine. He folded them back up and took his place at the edge of the bed, watching Adha.

Ugh... fuck, he was jealous, and it made him irritated because there was no real reason for him to be and he knew it. Desmond kept mostly silent, and didn't really make a move to cuddle into Altair's lap again. "They'll like that," he murmured, deciding that it was about time for him to actually get up.

Altaïr took Adha's face in both hands and kissed her. She kissed him back and then when they parted he pressed his forehead against hers. He didn't say anything, just made soft sort of bird noises. He couldn't say he was upset. Yeah he was surprised and before he'd gone feral children was literally the last thing he wanted. But feral thoughts came with feral wants and feral avians were always trying to have as many children as possible since their numbers were so few and scattered.

Adha echoed most of his happy noses with her own, running her fingers along the top of his hands. " _Ours_ ," she said softly and kissed him once on the lips.

He couldn't bring himself to interrupt, but couldn't stand the bubbling coos either. Desmond dug through his portion of the clothes and pulled something serviceable on. There were obvious marks of Altair's mouth on his skin, even bruises on his wrist and hips, and he didn't mind.

Desmond slipped out and sat on the ledge, wings held up to keep the feathers from bending. He picked through them, wanting to do a whole handful of things all at once. Break into the locked room with the artifacts was one, while the other side of the spectrum encompassed flying all the way home and going to hide in the ruins. He knew it was practically impossible.

Adha noticed when Desmond did, though Altair didn't. "Hey," he called when Adha got up a few minutes later.

" _Right back_ ," Adha promised, brushing her wing against his. Then she went out to where Desmond was. Cautiously she put her hand on his shoulder. "Upset?" she asked, in English. Brighteyes didn't know she could say a few words, but she could. They were hard for her though and she didn't like how... Rigid they were. " _Upset_?" she asked again, this time with all of the breadth the word had in their song tongue.

His fingers tightened on the feathers he was preening. Rather than answer right away, Desmond pulled his wings up even further, hoping it would dislodge her hand. He was a little more than upset, though confused was more accurate.

" _Lost_." His response was as curt as the language allowed. "I just... I want to forget this lifetime even existed," Desmond mumbled in English, almost unwilling to say the words. He still didn't know if he'd done the right thing. He woke the ancients because.... he was angry with Bill. He wasn't sure if he really wanted it, not the way things would turn out.

If he was being honest, he just wanted to go back to when he woke up in Altair's room, new wings limp and looking like a collection of giant, soft, grey q-tips. He wished he'd kept his feelings to himself, the stupid human feelings that made him do stupid things that only made things worse. Desmond _regretted_ , and he regretted a lot of things.

Adha frowned. " _Come_ ," she ordered and grabbed Desmond's shoulder and with more strength then you'd think was in her small body she hauled him to his feet. She grabbed his hand and pulled him back into the bedroom.

" _Adha- what are you doing?_ " Altair asker, confused why they were both inside and Adha was throwing clothes out of his dresser.

" _Come_ ," she told Desmond, " _Stay_ ," she added to Altair who pouted at her. She dragged Desmond out of the room by the hand and down the hall to a door that was always locked. She liked walking down past this room because she could hear the singing even through the door.

Adha fit a funny key into the lock and turned it. The lock clicked and opened. The remains' song grew as she pushed Desmond inside and followed him. She closed get eyes in delight hearing the remains sing and her wings fanned out, the golden feathers glowed a little. " _Remember here_ ," she said and then started to sing, her voice high and sweet.

Desmond couldn't really find it in him to be angry that Adha had stolen a key and had it the entire time. It probably could have made him a lot more amicable when he was a little rockier over the past few weeks. He shook his head, not wanting to be pulled into it and numbed by the act even though it pulled at him, made his eyes light up and his feathers glitter.

He didn't _want_  to let go of his frustration, even though it was so petty and meaningless beside the words Adha and the artifacts sang. Insignificant next to the Ancients who were returning, and it wouldn't be long now.

Gaze unfocusing, Desmond found his voice joining in, and could almost feel as he was meant to, even though his body did not quite match. He swore he could feel fingers petting his hair, palms brushing over the back of his wings. Now, he wanted it to go all the way back, where he lived with his keeper.

Adha sang until her throat was hoarse, until no amount of swallowing eased the ache there. By the time that had happened Desmond hadn't been able to keep going and was sitting, looking up at her. That that remained quieted as her singing petered out, happy that someone had sing with them for so long. She dropped down to her knees next to him. " _Remember too,_ " she said softly and brushed her fingers across Desmond's bangs. " _Keepers. Home_ ," her feathers bristled for a moment, " _War_ ," she said softly. " _Want back. Want what was. Don't hate me in this life,"_  she said and pressed her lips briefly to his forehead, " _Others we were the same. Want same. Had same. Will be same again."_

He gave a rough whimper, feeling himself nuzzle against her hand. Desmond's wings folded slowly. Whatever was human in him would at least be irritated with her. He cooed, and kissed Adha's cheek


	6. Radar

Desmond was more or less calm. Days turned into weeks, and those weeks became months. And a good three weeks were set aside when Ziio died, a victim of the sudden and rapid growth of her wings. She hardly had them for a few days, but her body could not take the strain. He tried to tell Haytham that it was alright, but couldn’t get him or Connor to listen to him. So the flock mourned.

He spent a lot of his time bringing food to Adha, making sure she was comfortable, keeping Leo at bay. Her stomach was swelling quickly, and Desmond even sang to the unborn avian. It had taken a little while for Altair to let go of the feral territorial instinct, but really, he was hopeless when it came to taking care of anything. Especially when Adha did come to term.

The whole flock was pulled out of the collective, clinging depression almost instantaneously. It was the one good thing that happened to the flock lately, and Desmond took to the child like no other, and he was damn good at it. When and if Adha allowed it, he took the fledgeling everywhere, cooing soft songs at them.

Desmond declared the fledgeling as ‘Saleem,’ and said that he was just as much a warrior as Altair. This he said a few times as if he was incredulous that no one else remembered - aside from defending that he wasn’t naming the child, but that was the name. Avian children grew quickly, something that Leonardo was in every way incredibly interested in, but Desmond was wary of letting him spend time with Saleem, with or without Adha’s permission.

Altaïr was watching Desmond play with his son on the floor. Adha was lying next to Altaïr, napping, since Saleem had been so fussy last night and Adha had stayed awake so they could get some sleep since she knew Desmond would take care of their son if she slept. Better than Altaïr would. Saleem was probably the only thing on the planet Altair loved; but that didn't mean he knew how to take care of a baby. To put it bluntly he was a horror even when he tried, and he did. Desmond or Adha usually gave him a look when he fucked up and fixed whatever Altair had done. So now he mainly just played with his son and let Adha and Desmond do the stuff Altair was bad at like making him giggle or giving him baths or rocking him to sleep. Altaïr still got tasked with diaper duty though because clearly they had it out for him.

From the floor Saleem laughed and batted at some blocks he and Desmond were playing with. He'd been a but uneasy when Desmond had tried to name their son but Adha had told him to shut up and agreed with Desmond. So, Altair had just agreed with them.

He perked up, "You hear that?" Altaïr asked. It had been a momentary blip sound, like an old fashion radar blip. It was another one of those not sounds sounds like when Bill had tried to clip Desmond's wings. He'd felt it briefly in his bones before it was gone again. Saleem knocked over some more blocks and chirped and cheeped at Desmond.

Desmond’s feathers rose, and he didn’t really move for a while. When he did, he gathered up Saleem, tugging the fluffy, cherub-winged child into his arms. “Looking,” he murmured. “Looking.” He looked down at Saleem, and shushed him with a gentle cooing.

Adha woke up next to " _They come_ ," she said, slightly blearily. Then she realized what she'd just said. She blinked awake. " _They come,_ " she said again and sat up. Then she got out of bed and went over to Desmond and plucked her son out of his arms. " _They come little one_ ," she said nuzzling her baby adoringly, kissing his belly.

" _Who comes_?" Altair asked as he felt the ping off his bones again.

_"You feel?_ " she asked Altaïr, looking at them, their son in the crook of her arm.

_"The blip?_ " he asked, confused.

" _Yes_ ," she said, smiling. " _Keepers looking. They come_ ," she smiled down at Saleem who patted her face. " _First new one you are, little Saleem_ ," she kissed him all over again and Saleem laughed. Altaïr had been feeling anxious before but hearing Saleem laugh made him feel better. He knew Adha wouldn't let anything happen to their son. Whatever was coming... Was good, right?

Desmond pushed himself up, feathers lying flat again. “Relax,” he said with a smile, leaning over to press his nose against Altair’s shoulder. “They’re looking for us.” His wings twitched, betraying his excitement. “Take us home,” he continued, trilling.

Altaïr made a concerned chirp of a noise. "Home where?" he asked as Adha came back to lay beside him, Saleem on her chest, flapping his tiny wings. Saleem wasn't like other avians. His wings had come in days after he was born, like they'd already been there, under his skin, fully formed, waiting to come out. She babbled at their baby as the ping went off again. "Can the others feel this?" he asked.

His only reply was a shrug, more with his wings than anything else. Desmond walked out to the railing-less deck, becoming a little restless. He could feel them as clearly as he felt the air against his feathers. The urge to fly to them was almost overwhelming.

Desmond folded his wings and pretty much ran back in, hopping up on the bed with a half opened flutter. “You’ll remember,” he said, wide smile all teeth. “It will be beautiful,” Desmond continued, though the word was more like bright or glowing, “the city rose, Keepers brought it back.” He was pretty much in Altair’s lap, body absolutely thrumming. It was as if he was humming, but the sound came from his bones, and wasn’t quite a sound but a feeling.

Altaïr frowned at Desmond and then looked at Adha. She was cooing gently to Saleem, sort of singing to him. Saleem was belly down on her chest, eyes closed, sleeping. She looked up at him when she felt his eyes, " _Good_ ," she said and ran her hand over Altair's knee and a bit through Desmond's hair. " _Everyone will sing_ " and singing was rejoicing and celebration and togetherness, understanding.

" _I don't sing,_ " Altair said bluntly.

Adha laughed, waking Saleem. " _Will with us,_ " she said before going back to soothing her baby, rubbing his back consistently.

Desmond’s smile softened. “You know it already,” he said, reaching up to tap Altair’s forehead. “Know here,” He cooed, “feel here.” Desmond’s hand came down to his chest, and his fingers rested there.

His wings unfurled slightly, mostly so that he could actually sit comfortably, and lean against Altair while he gently whispered the words to the verses.

Altaïr curled one of his wings around Desmond. He could half hear what Desmond was saying and just tried to ignore the radar-like pings on his bones. He curled his fingers through Desmond's and made himself relax.

Nothing bad was going to happen.


	7. Sleep Apnea

It happened during lunch. Most of the flock were in the same room, eating, talking, and maybe ignoring the pings. Altaïr was. All at once it came over them, like a chill but not. Altaïr felt something calling to him outside the big window. Everyone had their heads turned to look and were utterly silent, the silence strange after so much easy talking.

"Anyone else feel that?" Rauf asked, breaking the silence.

"Yeah," Altair said.

" _Here_ ," Adha said, her lips pulling back in a smile.

Desmond had honestly not expected it to be so startling. Beside him, Connor flinched when he let out a cry. He didn’t bother to check or ask, and got up, disappearing down the hall with a rustle of his wings. They were here. Finally.

Malik was the first to move and go after him, whereas Yusuf stared out the window. He did not have the words like Desmond did to describe what he felt, but he certainly felt the old, weirdly comforting presence. His fingers curled against Rauf’s, not sure if he could actually trust the calm that nudged at his mind.

When Desmond returned, he went right past them all, avoiding Haytham and Ed because something told him he’d probably be hassled even now for breaking into the locked room and handling the artifacts but he needed to give them back. They had at least kept them more or less safe. He couldn’t see them yet, even when he went outside, and that distressed him enough that he paced with his arms full.

"What the hell is going on?" Edward asked, his voice was surprisingly quiet. He almost sounded... Afraid.

"Keepers," Adha said and got up, holding her son. Saleem was sucking his thumb and looking out the window. "They come," and she went and followed Desmond. Altaïr followed her because he didn't know what else to do and he didn't want to let her out of his sight.

Rauf tore his eyes away from the window and looked at Edward. "What do we do?" he asked though he was sure he knew. Of course he knew. But he wanted Edward to tell him.

"I honestly thought that old buzzard just lied to me all this time," Edward said lowly and stood up. He looked at the members of his flock who were there, only Haytham and Ezio were absent. "The Ancients are back."

"I thought they were dead," Rauf said, feeling uneasy. "Right? They're dead."

"Apparently not," and he headed out. Rauf whined a little, looked at Yusuf, squeezed his hand and then followed after Edward, dragging Yusuf along with him. Whatever was out there at the very least none of them would be alone.

Ezio was drawn, unhappily to the rest of the flock. He had not taken well to the change in his physiology, and though that had been weeks ago, still seemed incredibly uneasy about it. For once, he was without a quick-witted comment, much the same as Yusuf, who was quiet beside Rauf.

“Are you... singing?” Connor asked, staring out at Desmond.

His lips were moving, but he wasn’t quite making noise. Desmond’s arms tightened around the artifacts and the response he made ended up more like a chirp. He looked back at the flock, and then out again, wings shuffling impatiently. Then, the voice welled up and he did sing, the words really only coming to him as they came out of his mouth.

Malik was, for lack of a better term, rather amazed. He’d heard Desmond sing before, mostly when he talked about the past, or specifically the artifacts and what they sang, but it was nothing like this. Nothing that made him feel like he knew the words, but it began to make sense to him.

Adha joined Desmond's song. In her arms Saleem started chirping and squeaking energetically. She looked at Altair who was frowning and rose her brows at him. He gave her a look in return. " _You know,_ " she broke off momentarily to say. Altaïr's mouth worked a moment but he had to agree. Yeah, he knew it. Adha beamed at him when Altair's baritone joined them.

Altaïr's actually turned in surprise when a deeper bass filled the air. It was Edward. His brow furrowed in confusion.

Stupid kid. Edward had spent _years_  with Rashid. Learning from him, had tracked down each of the flock as children to add to their number. When he was young Rashid used to sing to him, before Umar had been born and when his son had just... been human he never sang again. But Edward knew this song. Rashid used to sing it all the time. It was like a lullaby, an old one and while Edward didn't know what the words meant he knew how to sing it.

Rauf bit his lips and swallowed, pulling his wings around him as he listened to the others sing. "What's going on?" he turned at the sound of Haytham's voice.

"I don't know," Rauf said.

"I didn't know my father _sang_ ," Haytham said. "What the hell are they singing?"

"It's a song about your mother loving you," Rauf said, "A lullaby for children," and he tried to make himself look smaller than he already was when Haytham and Yusuf started at him.

"How do you know that?" Haytham asked.

"I... I remember my mother singing it to me," Rauf said. He'd started to remember a lot more lately, things he'd thought he'd forgotten. Parents he'd never known, yet now could remember this, though he couldn't remember what his parents looked like. Never that. But the song. The song Rauf knew.

Yusuf folded his wings against Rauf’s, pulling him even closer. His hand drifted over his feathers, wishing he could understand, could better soothe him. “Do you... not want to sing?” Yusuf asked quietly.  
  
Connor was at a loss. It felt like there were words being put into his head, sounds he knew but couldn’t place. They began to pull at his tongue and his voice joined the others. Ezio, on the other hand was just confused, not really taking to it, though just being there was honestly a little breathtaking.

Rauf hesitated. "I don't know," he said quietly. When they'd been in South America Rauf had grown the most auxiliary feathers and it was very clear that he was /like them/. The ferals.

Everyone else came from adoption homes. Kids with nictitating membranes, unwanted by their families for not being human. Rauf hadn't come from a home. Rashid had told him that. He hadn't been adopted into the flock and no doubt that unlike most of the others his parents had loved him fiercely. He'd come from a pair if wild avians. He was one still, though now a bit... Domesticated.

He licked his lips, feeling Haytham watching him. He didn't like to think about where he came from. He just wanted to be like the others, but the song was in his head and bones and splayed on his tongue. When his voice finally joined the others it was surprisingly high, nearly up there with Adha.

Ahead of him the golden feathers in Adha and Desmond's wings glowed a little. Then a dusky, purple, shape appeared in the sky. Far away. Rauf's heart jumped up into his throat.

It didn’t seem like Malik, Haytham or Ezio would actually sing. Yusuf felt the tune, through Rauf beside him, but his mouth wouldn’t form the sounds. He hummed and murmured instead.

Desmond’s feathers stood up again, and his wings twitched out with a childish excitement. His voice raised to a croon.

Their singing had brought attention from the rest of the complex. Guild members were piqued, and no doubt, Leonardo was somewhere nearby, transcribing the phenomenon.

The shape in the sky got bigger and bigger. It was the size of a jumbo jet, maybe a bit bigger, but more like something out of a scifi show. It stopped moving a few hundred feet away and up. Abruptly all the avians stopped singing, but not from fear or awe, rather they'd been cued like by a conductor in front of an orchestra. Altaïr's reached out and took Adha's hand, squeezing it.

Then the song that played through them, an unhearable sound that rolled through their bones came again. This song was different though. It wasn't angry, but it was violent. Altaïr's eyes went into Eagle Vision, turning golden and he knew /exactly/ what he was supposed to do now.

When Altair turned and looked away from the flying ship, at the others of his flock, he saw they all were golden eyed. One by one they all looked toward the Guild compound. They all heard the same song, they all knew the same order. This wasn't just a comforting melody to remind them they were back and the avians were safe now that their keepers had returned, something not all of them could respond to. This was like something hard wired into their bodies. They all knew exactly what this song demanded.

It demanded death.

Edward was the first who moved and threw open his wings. A year ago all he could do was soar on thermals. But his wings had changed in shape and size and ability. Without missing a beat Edward was in the air, powered forward by his own accord he flew back towards the compound. Haytham hadn't been even able to fly a year ago. But their keepers always took care of them and made sure they could do what was needed. Haytham was in the air shortly after his father.

Altaïr's took off a second later, just in time for Edward to land on the open window of the Guild building. Edward had grabbed the first human he could and pulled him out of the window. He fell three stories, screaming most of the time.

Their keepers were back and the humans were fucked.

Desmond clutched the artifacts, the Apple in particular. He told Adha that she did not have to worry, she had Saleem to take care of. He left the other pieces with her, and launched into the air with a cry. Some small part of him was vaguely upset, he’d kind of grown to like Leo... as weird as he was. It faded quickly.

Adha frowned after Desmond. She hadn't realized he'd insult her so much. Damn dry skins and damn humans for being sexist even when they didn't realize it. They were all avian and Adha was just as much as any of them. She looked down at Saleem who was looking up at her, silent, eyes golden and then turned her eyes outward. All the others were in the air and very quickly the humans realized that their passive avians were now attacking them. Except one.

Malik was still grounded, and he looked angry. Of them all he looked the most human because he had only one wing and it was small and stunted. Because of it he couldn't fly. Adha went over to him. " _Watch my son_ ," she said and despite Malik's sqawk of protest she fit Saleem into Malik's arm. _"He hurt any when I come back I will pluck the skin from your bones_ ," she growled and while she didn't know if Malik fully understood her she was sure his message was clear enough. She dropped the artifacts on the ground and jumping unfurled her wings. She was in the air in seconds.

Inside the Guild building it was chaos. Altaïr threw people out of windows when he could, just faster than to kill them personally. Others though he took the moment to watch them die with his hand wrapped around their throat. All the while the silent song throbbed through his body. He was powerless against it even if he wanted to disobey. But he didn't. He wanted to obey. He wanted to do this. He never thought he'd get to do this. His grandfather used to say that once their species has real purpose. Now Altair knew what that was; putting humans in their place. And they were horrifically good at it.

Malik growled, single wing flaring out. It was a useless gesture, and he was left standing there with the artifacts at his feet and Saleem cradled against his chest. He understood her just fine, the language bolting through him just as thoroughly as the order to kill had. There was a vague detachment from the realization that he would be culled for his uselessness. Malik wasn’t so upset.

Desmond rended minds and bodies using the Apple in his hand as much as he actually physically attacked. In the narrower halls, the artifact was an easy, brutally effective tool. He knew that they would have found weapons by then, and in the face of firearms, found little deterring about them. Reaching out with the Piece of Eden, he turned humans against each other, feathers flared. It was a little strange to notice and feel Leonardo die, and his last thoughts of Ezio and Salai made him pause.

He looked back, and moved on, claws clicking on the floor. They would be done soon, he could feel the dwindling numbers and he almost felt bad. The Guild was completely neutral when it came to the stupid skirmish. Desmond was tugged back to the field when he realized he didn’t exactly want to stop.


	8. I'll Find You Next

When the last person was dead the song abruptly stopped. With it the entire flock stopped, no longer driven by bloodlust and command. Once again they became passive. Altaïr's hands were covered in blood and when he looked down the hall and saw Rauf he saw so were his. He started when something bumped into him from behind. He twisted and found Adha, buried in his feathers, humming deep in her chest happily.

A new song started, calling them back out of the building. They went because they were designed to obey. Few thousand years without the ancients around, adapting to new environments and in less than an hour it seemed they were back to how they should have been. Back to obedience. Normally Altair would balk at obeying. But he wanted to. He wanted to obey.

The ship had landed outside the Guild building, which really was barely different from the Farm, out in the middle of God damn nowhere to protect itself from a world mostly fallen apart killing itself. Most factions had buildings like these, to keep their people safe.

As the flock was flying down from the windows the ship opened up. A moment passed as the gangway came down and the rest of the flock landed, Adha going to collect Saleem from Malik. Then a figure came down from the ship. They were tall and looked humanoid but their face was far too angular, their eyes slanted in a way humans weren't. They wore a black leotard like thing with golden curved lines across it and had black hair.

They walked towards the flock. Adha bounced her son in her bloody arms, the baby squirming. She cooed, shushing him gently. Then the ancient stood before the flock, they were as tall as Desmond, meaning they were freakishly tall by human standards, and was face to face with Edward.

"You did well," they said to Edward.

Edward swallowed, he was still surprised over what had just come over all of them, and a little afraid. Only a little though because it felt /so right/ to do what they'd just done. "We were trained," Edward said.

The ancient smiled, it was a nice smile, kind and warm and loving. Then he pulled out a device with glowing buttons and put his fingers over three of them. An audible song started to play. "Let's go home," the ancient said, the song amplifying that. Then the ancient turned and headed back for the ship, the avians followed, because they wanted to, the song calling to them. Saleem chirped and flapped his wings as they got onto the ship, like he was trying to sing with the device the ancient had.

Desmond watched them all walk past him, and fell in behind them, artifacts in his arms. He returned them, and did not look back. It didn’t cross his mind that the Farm would have been all but destroyed - Lucy, Clay, Becca, it didn’t matter. He watched Ezio, who’d straightened up and lost his unsettled demeanor. It was strange to finally see them slip back into the selves Desmond remembered, completely without the human aspects they had all picked up.

He wondered why his guilt clung so steadfastly.

In the ship, he could sense other Ancients,  but not his, and couldn’t stop the soft warble in his throat, wings shuffling.

The ancient led them all into a room as the ship took off, Altair was agitated. Not with distrust, but he felt a strong pull to leave, to go elsewhere in the ship. Where exactly he didn't know but he knew he'd find what he was looking for there, even if he didn't realize he was looking for something. When the door closed behind them the song cut off, the ancient turned to them. He had clear, yellow, eyes like butterscotch tablets.

"I'm glad we found you," he said, his accent was strange. "My name is Thor, I'm an angel specialist."

"Angel?" Haytham asked.

"Yes, of course. You all."

"That isn't what we're used to being called," Haytham said.

Thor gave a snort of contempt, "Yes, of course. The humans would have you believe your species is called avians. Avians is not what you are. Avian is our word for genderless. I believe some humans also believe themselves to be genderless. If they were they would also be avians. No, dear boy, we did not call you avians. You are angels. Which is of course _why_  all humans, when they talk about real angels in their 'holy books', think angels are vengeful beings sent from a higher power. And why things like sphinx and harpies are in your mythology. Winged beasts always trying to kill the humans," he smiled, satisfied, "Exactly how we wanted you."

"What happens now?" Edward asked, the ship was moving, going somewhere.

"We're going to go home, get you cleaned up, remind you of what you've clearly forgotten, and return you where you belong. It will be at the digression of your Keeper what happens to you after that. I assure you though since unlike most of the others we've found you have less feral instincts, that you are not our slaves. You're our helpers, or soldiers, and sometimes our most prized possessions. You'll want for nothing, and for some of you there will be little change in what you're doing now to what your keepers will ask of you. Now if you'd all like to sit we'll be home in about an hour. If you need anything you can let me know," Thor said, still smiling, still nice. They sat on the floor, since the chairs were backed and thus uncomfortable.

Thor came over Adha and Altair. Adha had Saleem in her lap. Desmond was on Altair's other side. Thor looked at Desmond, looked at Altair, them Adha, then back to Altair. "They yours?" he asked.

"Yes," Altair said, rather passively.

Thor seemed pleased, "Good," and then he went to the door, "If any of you need anything someone is right outside. Tell them," and them he left.

"Is anyone else totally weirded out by this?" Rauf asked once he was gone. Clearly it wasn't that he distrusted Thor, it was just a lot of information to take in all at once and was no doubt slightly bewildering.

Yusuf leaned against Rauf, “Did you know anything about this, Desmond?”

Desmond shook his head and turned more toward Altair. “Not really,” he mumbled, idly picking blood from Altair’s feathers. The process worked to calm him a bit, but he was beginning to worry that he wouldn’t lose the parts of him that thought he was somehow still human.

“Isn’t it just better not to ask questions?” Ezio glanced at Rauf, brows raised somewhat. He did not have a smart comment to respond with.

“Clean the blood,” Desmond said after a while, a lot more clearly than the first time he spoke. “It isn’t good to leave it there.” Though he’d stopped cleaning Altair, and kind of just rested his forehead against his shoulder.

Rauf turned into Yusuf, still feeling overwhelmed. He pressed his head against Yusuf with a whine. He just wanted things to be better. Or maybe go back. But also... Didn't.

"Are we going to be separated?" Rauf asked them, though he didn't know if he wanted an answer or not. "Cause as much as you guys piss me off or annoy me sometimes... You're my family. I don't want to be alone."

Desmond looked back at Rauf. “Maybe... But they won’t let us become unhappy... They never have.” He glanced at Yusuf. “We... find each other. It doesn’t always make sense, but Altair and I have, as far as I can remember.” He didn’t really remember Rauf and Yusuf much, not together but the way they interacted made him feel like they were just as much a pair.

Yusuf blinked, tipping his head somewhat. “You mean you find Altair?” He didn’t quite understand it, but the way his fingers tightened a bit and sought out Rauf’s hand said that he wouldn’t leave Rauf alone if he could help it.

“There’s... a lot that I just can’t remember. Gone.” He didn’t feel like he had been particularly invested in the others’ lives, but he knew that they all at least knew each other on some level - it was why they worked together so well. Aside from avians - Angels - being drawn to each other or remnants of their past, it seemed like they were drawn to specific others, like... a flock but organized in a... battalion almost. Desmond got the feeling he didn’t always fight.

"Well, at least that's something," Rauf said, squeezing Yusuf's hand tightly. He nuzzled him. "What does Adha always say?" he asked himself, so only he and Yusuf could hear. He thought a moment, "Oh right. _Mine_ ," and he kissed Yusuf on the cheek. He didn't care what happened. No one was taking his Yusuf away from him.

"We'll be fine," Edward said. "Rashid used to tell me. Like they'd been alive. Whatever they want from us we already did for the humans. And our keepers apparently are much better at keeping us stimulated," since really they were bored a lot, kept inside, out of sight. There weren't a lot of things for them to do and Edward was sure that was half why his flock fucked and fought so much: they were bored.

Yusuf smiled, laughed even. He folded his wings around Rauf, just enjoying his company in the pseudo removed space.

Ezio looked up from where he was working at his own feathers. He was still trying to figure out the different things going on in his head, and even with the flock around him, couldn’t shake the feeling of being somewhat alone. He didn’t voice his concerns, mostly just watched Connor edge a little closer to Haytham and Edward. He and Malik were really the only ones alone, but were probably just as wrapped up in trying to wrap their minds around the abrupt change in their lives. It was in no way subtle, and was an excessive amount to grasp, much less begin to understand.

The space was mostly quiet, save Saleem’s chirping and peeping, and Desmond and Adha’s soft cooing responses to the child. There was a heavy, nervous anticipation that reached all of them. They were going home, really home, and many of them didn’t quite remember what that home was like.

Malik approached Altair some time toward the end of the flight. “Altair. I need you to do something for me.” He stood, hardly jostled by the ship as it moved. “They are probably going to kill me. You have to do that, I don’t want to die by another hand.”

Desmond looked away.

Altaïr wasn't the only open mouthed stare when Malik said. That. And said it so bluntly too. Just like that he asked Altair to kill him. "W-what?" he stammered, he never stammered. But this was serious. Malik had been basically his only friend growing up and they'd faced everything together from Abstergo to rogue mercs to their own sexual frustrations. They were always a team, even after Malik got hurt, lost his wing and could no longer fly.

He stared at Malik. He tried to grasp /why/. Well really, he knew. The ancients had tested them against the Guild. Make sure they were fit to fight, fit to kill and fly. Malik was not. He was missing an arm and a wing. No way he was 'fit'. They'd kill him. Probably like you would a beloved dog. Painlessly, chemically. Malik was asking Altair to kill him. Because he didn't want to be a check mark.

Altaïr's mouth worked, everyone was staring at him. He didn't want to. God he didn't want to. Malik was his friend. He cared about Malik as much as he cared about himself. But he doubted Malik would be alive long after they'd landed. "I will," he said and stood up.

"Altaïr you can't-

"I can, and I will," Altair snapped at Haytham, his wings opening. "He should get to choose how he dies and if that's by me than I will. He's my friend and one of us: he deserves nothing less," Haytham didn't object again.

Malik relaxed somewhat, and actually smiled. “They might be important to us, but I don’t remember them or know them like I know you.” He reached out, grasping Altair’s upper arm.

“Come back soon,” Desmond said, gaze moving back to Malik. “You should... wait until you meet your Keeper first,” he continued, “they’ll let you die how you want... you have to meet them so you know who... to find.”

He didn’t like the incredulous look Malik gave him. “Would you honestly just believe me for once? I haven’t been wrong about this-”

“I don’t know what I believe right now, Desmond. Even after everything you have told me.” Malik sighed, a little more than exasperated with the kid right now. “I just know I don’t want to die by the hand of something I don’t know.”

"Ignore him, he talks a lot," Altair said and put his wing in front of Desmond, dismissing what he'd said. This was Malik's choice. No one else,avian- angel, or ancient should be allowed to make it for him. "You're sure about this?" he asked and Malik nodded.

Altaïr took a steadying breath. "I'm not looking forward to this," he said softly. "But I promise, I'll make it quick."

Desmond growled, and rather pointedly looked away.

“Thank you.” There wasn’t a need for him to apologize, or really thank Altair either. Malik couldn’t let Desmond’s words get to him. His breathing mirrored Altair’s for a few moments as he gathered himself.

Altaïr knew the rest of the flock was watching them. Waiting. He took a deep breath and put his hands on either side of Malik's face. "I'll find you next time," he said too softly for anyone but Malik to hear. Desmond talked about reincarnation shit a lot. He hoped it was true. Then he kissed Malik once on the lips and twisted.

He broke Malik's neck like it was particleboard.

Altaïr caught Malik's body when he went limp and brought his wings up, over the both of them. Concealing them as he crouched slowly, Malik with him. Altaïr was trembling and it became clear to him a moment later he was crying silent tears. He'd just killed Malik. He'd just killed his best friend. He pressed his face into Malik's still chest and kept his wings over him. He didn't want the others to see. Not that he was ashamed. He just wanted to mourn what he'd had to do alone.


End file.
